Good News on my E-type

[ian68]

When I bought my 65 E type in April this year, it had the start of some corrosion just coming on the rear of the sills. Nothing major, but something that wanted looking at rather than leaving to get worse.

I wanted the work done by someone with a good reputation and ended up booking it in with Alan Proctor, who came highly recommended. Due to his five month waiting list, I have only just took it in this week to have the work done.

As with all these things, we like to think the work will be minor but all the time dreading that once the sill is opened up there will be horror stories to tell.

Imagine my pleasant surprise therefore to receive an e-mail from Alan (who has seen more E-types than he would probably care to remember) that said, and I quote ' The car is a very good example of a Ser 1 E type. I would go so far to say it is the best example we have seen, the sills are the originals and when we look inside the sill cavity there is no corrosion'

Not bad for a 44 year old car that as far as I know spent its entire life in the UK before being restored around 20 years ago.

It's certainly made my day and confirmed I bought a good car!

Ian

[Moeregaard]

Congratulations, Ian! This is good news. One question: Is there any evidence of work being done at the back of the rear wheelarches? This is a very common rot area on coupes and I've seen a good number of cars here in California with problems in this area. Even my old '65 needed work here. Just curious....

[MarkE]

Great result Ian, and a lot better one than Alan gave me when I took my 1975 XJS up to him. It was a manual (rare) and a yellow car (very rare). I got the phone call after a week, asking me if the car had a very special meaning for me?always a bad start! The poor old thing needed circa ?20k spending on the bodywork, and at the end, would be worth all of ?6k. Consequently the XJS came home (to be re-shelled into an auto of the same colour and vintage) and the S3 went up to be re-painted. I got to know Alan well over those few weeks!

He?s worth the wait.

Mark

[ian68]

Hi guys, yes Moe, that area was replaced when the car was restored 20 years ago, but it must be fairly unusual to find a british car with original sills after 44 years! Surprisingly, even after the restoration the car has never been wax injected in any of its cavities (something which I will correct over this coming winter)

Alan was also very impressed with the standard of the 20 year old work and thinks that the car prior to restoration must have led a very easy life and/or been very well looked after.

I have no information on it prior to it's restoration other than the first owner was a company, so it was probably an MD's car or some exec.

[harryetype]

Mark

Have you still got the Manual XJS?????

Always had a soft spot for early S's especially a manual. reminds me of The Saint.

[MarkE]

I sold all my Pre-HE and P-Digital cars last year, Harry, after deciding to focus on the E Types.. The Yellow Peril went to a chap in Worcester who is now having a lot of fun restoring her to former glory.

I do like the early cars, especially a manual, but it's very rare to find one without terminal rot, and they can make an E Type look cheap to restore by comparison. But I still have the fleet of XJR-s 6 litre cars, and my original 3.6 manual, which is great fun to thash about.

Here's the Yellow Peril...looks like a giant bowl of custard coming down the road!

[harryetype]

It's shame you sold it, looks good in Yellow.

What year is your 3.6 manual car.

[Moeregaard]

You guys who are interested in the XJS should come over here and take some home. Rust-free examples can be picked up for almost nothing and many are garage queens with low mileage. All U.S.-spec cars were fitted with automatic gearboxes, and some will have been re-lumped with the Chevrolet small-block. I've seen clean, straight and original cars selling for less than $5,000. An XJ-6 in like condition will often sell for much less.